Present: Donald Ijams, Ron Platt, Dave Koss, Daniel Casey, Steve Whitney, Steve Smith, Andrew Acuff, Todd Sander, Robert MacArthur and Bob Czaja

Background, Present Circumstances and Future of the GIS Cooperative

The cooperative has been in existence for three years and has accomplished many things in that time. The group used to be informal until Todd Sander and others proposed it take on a more formal nature to help implement GIS citywide. It has helped introduce many newcomers and interested parties to GIS, provided training, and access to equipment and software. A good GIS infrastructure has now been established. Also, Water, Transportation and Solid Waste have significantly increased their GIS involvement during this period.

Don stated that he is currently very busy and now needs to step aside as leader of the Cooperative. It will be useful to discuss what the group's future is or can be. Right now, there is declining attendance at meetings. It takes a lot of energy to come up with interesting monthly agendas. People have now learned about GIS and perhaps some of them no longer have the need to attend.

Todd Sander expressed his view has been the Cooperative has been a good thing for the City and we all are better off to have it continue. This is a good time to take a position check and see whether it still makes sense to continue. However, if the Coop remains the same, a leader will need to take Don's place.

Ideas for Future Cooperative Activities

Mentor Program
Ron Platt agreed with Don on a number of issues. People have been introduced to GIS, and are further along in their development. Ron's beginning to see where he needs data that other departments have. There are situations now where departments better need to inform users what data is available and to standardize it.

One idea would be to implement a mentor program. This area has been lacking in the GIS area. We have educated, but not drawn out the needs of individual people. The Cooperative doesn't necessarily fulfill these needs. A mentor team/program would solicit individuals for GIS mentors, identify people with possible GIS-related needs and assign the mentors to "find out what GIS needs are for a particular group or effort." This could be difficult, so a marketing effort should be implemented.

Workshops/Refresher Training
Steve Whitney mentioned that there is a proper way to create and/or edit data in ArcView, so a workshop on the correct processes would be helpful. Another problem is not knowing what everyone else has, so there is a need for joint metadata efforts to expand and publish the data. Bob Czaja added that people have been through ESRI training, but are weak on GIS fundamentals such as editing and core concepts. Don thought that GIS skills tend to fade away for those who don't use them as a regular part of their jobs. Since there are quite a number of these people, a retraining/refresher course would be quite useful.

GIS Job Classification/Certification
Another issue brought up was that GIS certification would be a useful step to support the growing number of City GIS professionals. It would help standardize skills and add to career path possibilities with the City. It was mentioned that PCC is looking for a grant to start a GIS certificate program. It should be noted that there are a number of efforts out there that we could look at. Maybe something renewable would work.

Meetings
It was discussed that a regular forum on GIS issues is definitely necessary. There are still areas to grow with, as already discussed. The question is now how often and how to strengthen attendance. A suggestion was made urging mandatory attendance for representatives from all City departments. Monthly meetings are helpful to discuss issues as they come up and provide more opportunity for attendance. There could be a core group business meeting before a regular (open) group meeting. Todd mentioned that this goes along with two original goals: that this is a support group for current GIS users, as well as a place for people who have identified GIS needs or interest in GIS. Maybe core GIS users could meet monthly and a larger regular meeting could be quarterly.

Another idea was to share the job of arranging for meeting agendas and hosting the meeting. Todd also said that he might work to mandate attendance if there will be a focus on real issues and content. Continuing financial support to the Cooperative can be provided as in the past (within budget constraints), with a visible show of return on investment. The Cooperative will need to do budget planning and develop a spending plan.

All the ideas and recommendations will be evaluated and discussed at the next meeting.

Election of New Chairman

Responding to Don's request to step down, the group discussed the chairman position and called for persons willing to serve. Ron Platt, of the City Department of Transportation, was nominated and elected by acclamation. Don was thanked for his years of support during the Cooperative's formative process.

Other Business

The third Tuesday of the month, from 3:00 until 4:30 PM, appears to be the best time for future Cooperative meetings. The next meeting of the GIS Cooperative is scheduled for Tuesday, December 17, 2002 at 3:00 PM. in the City I.T. Pueblo Room.